How far did attitudes towards conscientious objectors change between WW1 and WW2?
At the beginning of WW1, signing up for the army was voluntary, however, in 1916 it was made law that all men were required to join in the war effort. This was due to the lack of men volunteering and the rate of which men were being killed in the war. However, there were some people who didn’t want to fight, they were called conscientious objectors. There were various reasons why men and women became conscientious objectors. Some of the reasons included: religion, such as Quakers, pacifists, socialists, emotional experience and medical reasons.
Government attitudes could be seen to have changes between WW1 and WW2. Although people were given the right to be a conscientious objector in the 1916 conscription Act due to pressure from the Quaker MP’s, in practise they were very unsympathetic. In WW1 people who refused to work were severely punished. Some punishments were worse than others but the worst was death by being shot. Some men were thrown in ponds repeatedly, given hard labour or put in a hole for large amounts of time. Men were also publicly humiliated by the white feather campaign. This involved women handing a man a white feather, in public. This was to signify his cowardice. By wearing this white feather the public would see that the man was a coward and they were often verbally abused and even beaten up. However, before the men were punished a Military Tribunal tried them. The Tribunals were made up of rich classes and ex-soldiers. These Tribunals were often harsh and biased. This was because the ex- soldiers gave little sympathy to men who would not fight. One man was told he was a ‘shivering mass of unwholesome fat!’ If the Tribunal found reason in which a man couldn’t fight he was given exemption. There were 16,000 conscientious objectors yet only 400 gained exemption. Although men were given exemption they were expected to find other ways in which they could help with war effort such as working in a munitions factory. Men who refused to have anything to do with the war effort were called absolutists. If the Military Tribunal found no reason for you to be given exemption you would then be punished.
